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Artificial intelligence adoption is rapidly transforming how high-growth, venture-backed technology companies operate, with businesses deploying AI across engineering, finance, human resources, sales, marketing and customer success, according to a research report by global venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners.

High Confidence in AI's Impact

The report found that 86 per cent of respondents were highly confident that AI would meaningfully change how their teams operate over the next 12 months, with an average confidence score of 4.4 out of 5. While 58 per cent said AI was already core to operations or being actively deployed across their teams, 43 per cent were still experimenting with tools or just beginning adoption. Anthropic's Claude emerged as the most-used AI tool across the portfolio, with 73 per cent of respondents using it.

Influence on Workforce Planning

The impact of AI is already influencing workforce planning. Nearly half, or 49 per cent, said their teams were delivering more without adding headcount. A further 25 per cent had upskilled employees into AI-adjacent work, while 13 per cent had slowed or paused hiring. Around 10 per cent had created new AI workflow roles and 6 per cent had backfilled roles with AI tools.

Department-Specific Adoption and Challenges

Engineering Leads in Adoption

Engineering teams showed the highest level of adoption, with 90 per cent either actively deploying AI or considering it core to operations. AI coding assistants were used by 92 per cent of technology and engineering teams, while 57 per cent of engineering code involved AI assistance.

Finance and HR Face Data Hurdles

Finance teams were primarily using AI for financial planning and analysis, financial modelling and contract review, but data quality and system fragmentation were identified as the biggest barriers.

In human resources, the primary concern was data privacy and compliance, while teams used AI extensively for job descriptions, offer letters, recruiting and performance review support.

Go-to-Market Teams Focus on Efficiency

Sales and go-to-market teams were using AI for account research and call summaries, although data quality and difficulty measuring pipeline impact remained challenges.

Marketing and communications teams reported universal use of AI for content creation, but brand safety and quality control were their biggest concerns.

Customer success teams were using AI for ticket triage, chatbots and productivity tools, with AI helping reduce ticket volumes. However, leaders said they still faced difficulties proving the technology's impact on customer retention.

Barriers to Uniform Implementation

The findings indicate that AI adoption is not a uniform process across functions, with data quality, compliance, tool fragmentation and skills gaps shaping the pace of implementation across teams. (ANI)